


Even Just For Tonight

by TrickstersBlessing (Rinielle)



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Found Family, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Pre-Relationship, cat shenanigans, snuggles
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-14
Updated: 2020-02-14
Packaged: 2021-02-28 01:40:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,510
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22725547
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rinielle/pseuds/TrickstersBlessing
Summary: It was still dark but Fjord's eyes were unhindered and fell easily onto Caleb, who was leaning over him and holding onto a very put out looking Frumpkin. Caleb's eyes might not be as adjusted to darkness as Fjord's but the moons above must have given enough light for him to catch Fjord looking up at him. His expression turned guilty."Ah. Caught," he said quietly, looking to Frumpkin and adding, "You have gotten us into trouble mein Freund,"---Or/ Caleb has not been sleeping well recently and Fjord (and Frumpkin) come to the rescue.
Relationships: Fjord/Caleb Widogast
Comments: 9
Kudos: 282





	Even Just For Tonight

**Author's Note:**

> I love this co-dependent mess of a found family.

Fjord shifted slightly, still mostly asleep but strangely aware of a heavy weight settling on his chest. For a half a second the beginnings of panic began to settle, memories of a heavy weight followed by difficulty breathing and terrible cold. But it wasn't the same. This was lighter somehow, and warm. After a moment or so it even felt soothing, sending a steady thrum through his chest. His nose tickled slightly but not unbearably so. He ignored it. Allowing sleep to take him fully once more.  
  


_ "What have I told you before,"  
  
_

Somewhere on the edge of his consciousness Fjord heard the soft low voice, and along with it the weight on his chest started to disappear. He felt himself waking fully, unwilling to lose the comforting feeling but even as his eyes began to blink open he felt a light scratch across his skin and a tug on the fabric of his shirt.  
  


"Stop being so stubborn, let him go," the tugging stopped and a mournful mewl filled the air. It was still dark but Fjord's eyes were unhindered and fell easily onto Caleb who was leaning over him and holding onto a very put out looking Frumpkin. Caleb's eyes might not be as adjusted to darkness as Fjord's but the moons above must have given enough light for him to catch Fjord looking up at him. His expression turned guilty.   
  


"Ah. Caught," he said quietly, looking to Frumpkin and adding, "You have gotten us into trouble mein Freund,"   
  


"Wus goin'on," Nott's sleep filled voice made Caleb wince, and look even guiltier.   
  


"It's nothing Nott, go back to sleep," Fjord replied softly, worried for a moment that she would wake herself just to spite him and that would probably be it for all their sleep then. Luckily exhaustion ruled over her desire to be contrary to Fjord's wishes for once, and within moments the air was filled with her soft snoring. Fjord shuffled upright, Caleb moving backwards to allow him the space, resigned to himself being awake at least.   
  


"What  _ is _ going on?" he asked, keeping his voice low. Caleb placed Frumpkin on the ground beside him before replying. 

"I ah, think Frumpkin has taken something of a liking to you," he said, "Since you cured him of poison, in the jungle, every night I've found him sleeping closer and closer to you. It wasn't such an issue when he was a monkey but I know you have your allergies. I move him and tell him to stay away and he will for a time but it is as if every time he goes back to his plane, when he comes back he forgets and suddenly back he is... " he shrugged and they both turned their gaze on the cat who cocked his head to one side innocently.   
  


"I ah, didn't notice him leave and it seems he graduated to sleeping on you," Caleb finished, and that certainly explained the strange weighted feeling Fjord had had and why Caleb had been leaning over him with the offending weight in his arms. "I had hoped to move him without disturbing you but he had other ideas,"   
  


The look that Caleb shot Frumpkin as he said that was so full of irritated betrayal that Fjord couldn't help it. He laughed. He'd never seen Caleb look at his cat that way before, in fact he thought if anyone else in the group had given Frumpkin such a look Caleb would have taken it as a personal affront. The laugh brought Caleb out of his stare down with his cat and his attention back to Fjord. He seemed surprised. Why? At finding Fjord was not angry or upset by Frumpkins nightly visits? He took a breath to calm his laughter and clapped a hand on Caleb's shoulder.   
  


"Caleb," he said, as reassuringly as he could, "It's fine."  
  


"But your allergies,"   
  


"Are fine," though naturally his body chose that moment to cause him to sneeze. Caleb fixed him with a thoroughly disbelieving look and he sighed. "Trust me, they're usually much worse." He said, sniffing slightly, "Maybe Fey cats aren't quite so prone to shedding,"   
  


"Frumpkin does not shed!"   
  


And there was that righteous indignation on the part of his Fey friend. Fjord grinned at him and watched as his face turned ever so slightly red.   
  


"Ja well. I still apologise, for him, and for waking you," He made to move, probably to head back to his own bed roll but Fjord kept a pressure on his shoulder, just lightly but enough to make him pause in his movements.   
  


"You said every night," Fjord said.   
  


"Hmm?"   
  


"You said you noticed him every night," he repeated, "Are you not sleeping?"   
  


The guilty look had returned and Caleb turned his gaze to the ground. One hand reaching out to bury itself in Frumpkin's fur as he often did when he was anxious.   
  


"How long?" Fjord coaxed, voice as gentle as he could make it.   
  


Caleb's eyes rolled as if making a quick search for a way out of the conversation. He must have concluded there was none, as he sighed a moment later and answered.   
  


"Since Rexxentrum,"   
  


"Rexxen..." Fjord cut himself off as Caleb hissed - almost cat like himself - too loud. They both hung on in silence for several seconds but thankfully no more of their companions stirred.   
  


"Caleb tell me you've slept since Rexxentrum that... That was weeks ago!" he murmured, shifting forwards and ducking his head slightly in an attempt to catch Caleb's gaze. He turned his head away to avoid him.  
  


"I... Have slept, some," Fjord didn't much like the way he said that, but was at least relieved to know the wizard hadn't been running on practically no sleep for over three weeks.   
  


"It is... Some nights, are easier, out here with all of you here, it’s easier, but still. Sometimes it is difficult to turn my mind off, to stop worrying about what we are doing, and sometimes,” Caleb took a deep breath and let it go, then again in a practised sort of way, “Sometimes I am just afraid to close my eyes, you know?”  
  


Fjord did know. He knew all too well. The fear of sleep had been with him almost his whole life. The fear of what the other kids might do whilst he slept in the orphanage, once he had left, the fear that he would wake up and be back there had stayed with him longer than he would ever admit. The fear of waking and finding the life he had built for himself on the sea gone had one day become a terrible reality. Some nights he worried he would wake on that beach again, that all of this would be gone. Some nights he worried he would wake where he had slept, but the others would be gone; either taken or having left him behind. Some nights he feared he would not wake at all. That Uk’otoa would return, furious and vengeful.   
  


“I know,” he said gently, and finally he was able to catch Caleb’s eyes, “I know,” he repeated, looking into them, hoping Caleb could read in them that he understood; truly understood. Caleb sighed, and Fjord felt his shoulder relax slightly under his hand; and realised suddenly that he had been rubbing gentle circles there with his fingers? Come to think of it, had they been this close the entire time? He let his hand fall away and leant back slightly, biting the inside of his mouth and glad that Caleb’s eyes would likely not pick up on the way his face flushed.

  
Caleb coughed lightly.

  
“Thank you, Fjord,”

  
“For what?”

  
Caleb sighed and gave him a slightly lopsided smile. Since they had first arrived in Rexxentrum it was about the closest thing to a real smile Fjord had seen on him, so he counted that as a win at least.

  
“We understand each other I think, you and I, don’t we?” Caleb replied, “Perhaps more than either of us might ever have chosen to, but, I am glad to have you Fjord.”

  
Fjord blinked. Caleb did this sometimes. Things could move from the generally ridiculous to the intense and deep within a moment with him. Was this softly smiling man, revealing his gratitude at having Fjord around, the same man who had not five minutes ago been sending a death glare to his cat? Fjord hung his head slightly, smiling himself. Caleb was a contradiction for certain but then, weren’t they all? Wasn’t that why they clung to each other. This little family of misfits. Wasn’t that why, despite the hesitancy and the secrets and the reveals, they had made it this far?

  
“I’m glad to have you too, Caleb,” he replied, and he let out a huff, “I’d like to have you with us a bit longer too,” he added pointedly and Caleb stuttered slightly.

  
“Ah, ja,” he glanced back at his bed roll, “I should…” he jerked his head towards it. Fjord followed his gaze. He paused a moment, rolling a thought over in his mind, unsure whether to voice it or not. Caleb was no longer quite as skittish as he had once been, and he was not untactile, but… 

  
“You know,” he said quietly, pursing his lips for a moment, trying to find the best way to say it. “You’re not really doing yourself any favours, being all the way over there,”

  
He hadn’t really thought about it before, but now that he was he realised that recently Caleb had been sleeping on the outside edge of their little group, almost at the boundary of the dome. Away from even Nott, who could often have been found curled up alongside him in the past. Caleb’s eyes darted between Fjord and his chosen sleep space, and it seemed he had come to a similar realisation. Fjord didn’t blame him. They really could be two peas in a pod despite their apparent differences. He had done the same after the Iron Shepherds, slowly distancing himself from the group, shutting off emotionally and then later physically too. Caleb had, perhaps unknowingly, begun bringing him back to his senses in a whirl of flame. He had barely noticed the widening gap between himself and the group until Caleb had so clearly drawn that line between them, and Avantika and her crew. He could do the same for him, if perhaps a little gentler.

  
“Right come here then,” He waved a hand at Caleb who blinked in confusion back at him.

  
“I am here,”

  
“Ha ha,” Fjord rolled his eyes and settled himself back down on his own roll, scooting over slightly to make room for another, patting the space beside him. Caleb hesitated, he had to be hesitating because he couldn’t still be at a loss to understand Fjord’s meaning.

  
Fjord leant up on his elbows and made a show of casting an eye over their little group. Caduceus legs were covered by Yasha’s outstretched arm. Nott was curled into a ball tucked into the small of Yasha’s back, Beau was practically draped across Jester and vice versa whilst Jester’s tail was curling lightly in the space where Fjord’s foot had been before he had woken up. He caught Caleb’s eyes once again, he was chewing his lip and Fjord gave him time. When after almost a minute had passed by and he had not yet bolted for his own bed roll, Fjord stretched out an arm.

  
“It’s easier, when you know someone is there,” he said softly, thinking of all the nights he had woken in a state of panic only to find Beau’s arm flopped across his neck as she snored loudly beside him, or felt Caduceus’ back pressed against his, or heard Jester close to his ear, murmuring to herself disjointedly about unicorn hamsters. Or Caleb. It was rare, but somehow the nights when he woke to find Caleb nearby were the nights sleep returned easiest. He wasn’t ready, yet, to open that box and figure out precisely why that was, but he could try and do the same thing for Caleb. 

  
“Let me be there for you?” he asked, voice barely above a whisper, “Even just for tonight?”

  
There was something in the way that Caleb was holding himself that assured him that he didn’t object to the idea, but something still held him back. Fjord had never taken it for granted that they had managed to beat down the man’s walls. He was something of a fortress, despite a decidedly squishy outward appearance. Frumpkin chose that moment to let out a dissatisfied yowl, pawing at Caleb’s knee a moment before flopping to the floor his back hitting Fjord’s side. The tension in Caleb dissolved slightly and Fjord smiled, reaching down, a little hesitantly, to scratch Frumpkin behind the ears. It was easy to forget the cat was Fey sometimes.

  
“See even Frumpkin thinks it’s a good idea,” he intoned, and as he drew his hand back Frumpkin reached his front paws up to grab at it. Caleb sighed lightly, reaching down to replace Fjord in scratching the cat.

  
“You are a menace,” he said to the cat, but there was no irritation in his words. Frumpkin mewed lightly in response and got to his feet, padding out of the way, whether by Caleb’s silent instruction or simply because he wanted to Fjord couldn’t tell. Caleb shifted slowly onto the roll, laying down beside him. Fjord lay his arm out beneath him.

  
“I have it on the very best authority that I make an excellent cushion,” he said wrapping his arm around Caleb’s shoulders as he tucked against his side, head laid on Fjord’s chest almost exactly where Frumpkin had been earlier that night. He felt rather than heard Caleb laugh a little, and felt a small glow of pride. A minute ticked by in relative silence, Nott’s snores still washed over them, joined now by Beau, and Fjord took another moment to revel in how lucky he was. He felt something brush his arm and glanced down to see Frumpkin rubbing against Caleb’s back before settling himself neatly in the small of the wizard’s back. Eyes still open, watching Fjord. They lay there, the two of them, just watching each other, and Fjord had the strangest sensation that Frumpkin looked pleased with himself.

  
“Hey, Caleb…” he began, a question with regards to the general intelligence of Fey creatures on the tip of his tongue. He got no response, and his gaze shifted to the man in his arms. His eyes were closed, his face relaxed and open, his breathing slow and measured. Asleep. Fjord chuckled lightly, glancing once more at Frumpkin who had laid his own head down now, eyes closed, breathing in time with his master. Either asleep or doing a very good impression of it. He laid his own head back, staring up at the clear night sky through the roof of the dome, letting the question drift away. It hardly mattered anyway. 

**Author's Note:**

> Right. I said to myself.  
> If nobody else is going to write soft boys just cuddling, then I'll do it myself!
> 
> Fjord used Lay on Hands on Frumpkin one time and Frumpkin just went "Yes", decided this was definitely the best person for his Caleb, and he did what was necessary.
> 
> Did I write this in like an hour because I suddenly realised it's Valentine's Day but it's also almost over... Maybe. But you can't prove anything!!!


End file.
